


Fairy Business

by limeta



Series: Soulmate bonds [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Hunters, Fae & Fairies, M/M, Multiple Timelines, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22617823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limeta/pseuds/limeta
Summary: Harry Potter hunts a fairy for the first time. Tom Riddle hunts a fairy for the hundredth-something time. They're soulmates, too, on top of that.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Series: Soulmate bonds [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1909717
Comments: 11
Kudos: 128
Collections: Chamber of Secrets' Winter Exchange (2019)





	Fairy Business

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skittykitty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skittykitty/gifts).



> Not so Secret Santa gift for Sketch. Hope you enjoy!

In order to become a fairy hunter, one had to do the titular thing and actually hunt a fairy. Successfully. That was where things usually became tricky for newly fleshed hunters.

Harry Potter was one such hunter. He'd been taught by the best hunter of the United Kingdom: Albus Dumbledore. And his many hidden names. Because one always had to have their full name hidden away when fighting fairies who could seize total power over a person with a name. It was dangerous stuff. Some hunters said that the prices they paid in order to shed the manipulative power of a fairy off of them were too steep to mention in full.

How much of this was fear-mongering propaganda and how much of it was the truth, Harry didn’t know specifically. He just knew that Hermione and Ron had already hunted a fairy together successfully, but that Albus Dumbledore told him he had to do this on his own.

This fairy was the most elusive of the Forest. It was said that he had stolen many a child away and enticed even the most hardened and wise artists that ought to have known better. Their words were like honeydew, sprinkled just enough with a magical presence that lulled his targets into a false safety. Only for those claws to sink into their pray and **_pull_**. 

Harry held tightly onto his axe and decided to start this hunt by destroying a fairy tree. That ought to get his attention. In one clean swoop the axe lodged deep into the obsidian bark of the tree. A scream tore from its crevices in an agonized, deathly cry. The trees around them rattled from its force. But the great menace emerged from within the tree when the bark parted to reveal a being with bark textured skin, garbed in flowers, with fingers coated in sap. When the being opened his eyes they were red. Harry pulled the axe out of the tree and aimed it at the snarling fairy.

‘’You’re going to leave this Forest willingly or in pieces, Fair Folk.’’ Harry didn’t think that just by threatening someone’s life meant he had to be impolite about it. That’d only piss the fairy off even more.

Alas this one was part of the Unseelie court, and no amount of flattery would get him to calm down. His target charged after flicking his hands from the sap. They elongated into spindly claws.

‘’Fairy hunter, this is your tomb. Such a shame,’’ The red looked him over greedily, ‘’to die for one in full bloom.’’

Harry really didn’t like the rhyming. He’d said this from day one as a hunter in training, and he said it now on his first day as a proper hunter. The rhyming sucked. He raised the axe to guard his face and awaited the fairy’s attack.

* * *

There was a Seelie court fairy that immensely irritated all of the villagers of Godric’s Hollow. They’d all chipped in and sent off one of the villagers to find a fairy hunter to rid them of the menace.

Bellatrix Black held the money bag out to a man and said: ‘’You’re fairy hunter Riddle?’’

Riddle inclined his head in a nod. She’d tracked him down to his pub of utmost leisure. Iron surrounded it from all sides and made it impenetrable for fairies to cross in. Not to mention the running water around, or the spells cast in the walls of the establishment.

Aberforth Dumbledore pretended not to overhear the noise as he washed the glasses. This was his establishment and he offered free entry to everyone that wanted safe haven. Not far from it was the Forbidden Forest, full of the most dastardly and conniving of the Fair Folk. He was hunting someone in it, but he could always return later. That was for his own soul’s business, and by the looks of Bellatrix’s bag of galleons, it would do him better to situate himself more economically. His tab at Aberforth’s was growing too big to bear.

‘’What’s the fairy’s modus operandi?’’

‘’He’s a prankster.’’

‘’Pretty rash decision to make, I say. I thought he’d killed one of your villagers and that was why you asked me to come.’’ Riddle whispered and caught Aberforth leaning for more information. That man always was a terrible gossip. Giving away his sister’s name was what got her killed and he’d never forgiven himself. Having his brother fall in love with the fairy that killed her didn’t help either. That damned thing was still somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, awaiting the loving embrace of his human lover. Same lover that asked Riddle to kill the fae.

But first he went yonder to Godric’s Hollow.

‘’The pranks ended in death of children. He took them with him and mad them dance dances he deemed funny until their hands and feet bled, until bone showed, and until they cried to their deaths. That is why we called you and plead with you to end the village’s suffering. It is even worse than when the Prince of Faerie lived a brief summer decades prior with that story-teller Bagshot.’’ Bellatrix explained, wringing her hands together and moving alongside Riddle. She looked at his red eyes and he could feel her burning questions, but there would be no answers for her. He was no vampire and that was all she needed know.

‘’I understand.’’ Riddle took up a shotgun filled with magic coated bullets. Axes were old fashioned and something inexperienced hunters wielded. Any true hunter knew that letting a fairy get close was a bad idea. He fought at a distance.

At Godric’s Hollow he found the fairy in form of an owl perched atop a tree. He hooted at Riddle, first out of confusion, and then out of curiosity. Riddle aimed the shotgun at the beast and shot before it could reach him. It screeched in pain and transformed into a bark textured mess of writhing vines. His eyes were the most beautiful emerald shade Riddle had ever gazed at. He reloaded his gun and aimed once more.

Before he could shoot this time, however, the fairy summoned an array of snow white owls to attack him. Riddle cursed under his breath. It wasn’t a solitary fae. _Ugh_. One of the owls tore a hole into his shirt. A part of his soulmate’s words could be seen.

Once Riddle spelled the birds immobile and got rid of them with another, less bird friendly spell –he covered the words up. The very last thing he needed was for this fairy to have any leverage over him. Knowing your full name or your soulmate’s words were powerful bargaining chips. And Tom Riddle couldn’t care less about bargaining with the Fair Folk.

* * *

Harry charged into a sprint away from the fairy, a bleeding gash across his face from his claws smearing across his face in a lightning bolt scar made of rivulets of deep, crimson blood. 

The forest loomed dangerously. Branches twisted forward, vines uprooted themselves. The very soil seemed to shake underneath Harry’s muddied boots. He twisted from the fairy’s brutal attacks.

‘’Fairy hunter, oh one so small–‘’ Those crimson orbs pierced into him like a dagger pierced flesh in a most exquisite way. As if the first cut of a steak before its consumption. Harry shuddered. The fairy canted his head upward, to sneer, and antlers began to gradually form a crown drowned in decadence. ‘’you know nothing how hard I will make you fall.’’

Harry’s grip tightened on the axe. The fairy did not strike immediately. It’d already gotten a fair amount of licks in, but so had Harry. The bark was wet with sap, honeyed by the amount of sugary faerie food these folk of magic and mischief ingested. It was the closest one got to drawing blood. He moved hard, with steps of old age and wisdom and knowledge most profound about the cunning aspects of death and game.

‘’It’s nothing personal, fairy. You’re my ticket into a higher circle, that’s all. My parents are counting on this.’’ When he killed his first fairy and brought evidence forth to Dumbledore, he would be granted access to the world of proper fairy hunting. Where he could form alliances and hunt down the illustrious fairy that had killed his parents when he was but a child, and tried taking him away. His mother’s magic had protected him, but he’d always had a vivid memory of the damned thing’s silhouette emerging from the shadows of his nursery. It’d had a shroud made of intricate spirals, as if a leafless tree trapped forever in winter stood on its head.

‘’Your parents…how quaint.’’ The fairy’s laughter was ice cold. ‘’You must see them like one does a saint.’’

‘’Don’t talk about them. Lily and James Potter were the greatest fairy hunters of their time. You don’t get to condescend on my feelings.’’ Harry realised, in that fuming moment, that he was going to destroy this fairy. And that he had to be ready to destroy something so lifelike if he was ready to commit to this life of hunting and killing. The most he’d killed before was a pixie. But this was a real person –monstrous person, truly, but real with ideas and thoughts that likened any warped human’s mind. Except fairies could not physically bring themselves to lie. That was where their psyches differed.

‘’Lily and James Potter.’’ The fairy’s mouth stretched, his jagged teeth chattered, and the shroud atop his head finished growing. Harry saw red. ‘’I was responsible for that slaughter.’’

* * *

Tom Riddle hunted the fairy down to a creek. He aimed his weapon at the svelte merry fairy and asked: ‘’Do you know who I am?’’

His green eyes widened in fear and he answered Riddle’s question in a heated and quick manner: ‘’I know of you. You’ve killed hundreds of us, you, you, _you_!’’

‘’Aren’t you a petulant little sapling.’’ Tom grinned up at the creature. He had tried climbing a tree, but with a shot wing it would be hard to accomplish any task. Now the fairy remained at the foot of it, glaring profusely, whilst holding his arm in an awkward, cradling motion. He snapped his fingers though, and Tom unsheathed a dagger in a sheath strapped to his thigh.

Hoots alerted him. The fairy’s tongue garbled into a tongue of fae, hisses and snarls transforming the otherwise mundane rhyming into something far beyond. The hooting grew louder and the owls grew closer. Emboldened by such a fact, the fairy tried to sit up. Tom readied the dagger for the owls.

‘’I would counsel you to stay down and accept your fate, o Child of Fate.’’

The owls attacked. Angrily, the green eyed fairy shouted: ‘’You think to play me like a second hand fiddle, don’t you, you silly, silly Riddle? Well it is I who will _play_ and it is you who will pay!’’ Fairies were desperate for entertainment. This was why they were such a danger. As long as they were having fun humans would live in fear.

Tom Riddle slashed at the owls as they came, but not even he could attack them all when they came simultaneously. Blood spilled from his gut. Lost in pain, he did not anticipate that the fairy would strike then. Yet he did. He toppled Riddle to the ground and pinned him down, wrestling him for his gun. That was fine. Tom used the dagger to stab the fairy’s side and he let out another wail of pain, like a child did. Fairies were nothing but a poor imitation of a warped, monstrous child with too much power. They needed to be killed and pruned like gardens infested with weeds.

In his last moments, the fairy scrambled fast to claw at Tom, trying to wound or maim or whatever preposterous notion – he looked at Tom’s words, however, and just before being stabbed again – whispered: ‘’You’re no fun.’’ Then, more frightened, ‘ **’This isn’t fun at all anymore.** ’’

A shudder slammed through Tom Riddle in that moment. One that he retaliated with a sneer, whether or not the limp fairy could hear him. ‘’How _dare_ you?’’

The owls began to silence themselves. They fled when their master died. There was no loyalty among the Fair Folk. Tom pushed the lifeless body off of him and shuddered, once more. He grappled with his weaponry, sheathing the dagger, and taking up the gun once more. The nerve of this fairy to read _his_ words. Meant to mirror the ones on his soulmate. It filled him with an indescribable rage.

One that fled, rather quickly –when Tom turned around and came face to face with the Prince of Faerie –who by all accounts ought to be in the Forbidden Forest, and not holidaying off in Godric’s Hollow.

‘’Hello.’’ He addressed, a blonde crown atop his head. His eyes were a mismatched colour. It was because he saw many realities and different time states. Or so the legends said. Tom Riddle didn’t think that the Prince could do all of the things people sang about.

‘’Your majesty.’’ He bowed. Fairies liked polite humans. Tom, weary from battle, did not want to be disliked in this moment.

But then the Prince turned around and said: ‘’Oh, hello to you, as well.’’

* * *

Harry was not having a good time with his target. Mostly because his target was his parents’ killer and that damned fae loved goading him on.

‘’Your parents dropped like _flies_.’’

‘’You fucking liar.’’ Harry charged and swung with all of his might. The axe lodged into the ground, because the damned thing evaded in time.

‘’Oh hunter, I cannot tell lies.’’ He laughed, that voice high and floaty and beautiful and sickening to listen to. Harry closed his eyes and panted, exerting just enough energy to pull the axe out of the ground. The scar on his head throbbed with pain. Yet he bit through it and marched on.

‘’They died fighting and they –‘’ But he couldn’t get the rest out of past his lips, before the fairy surged at him, claws drawn in abandon. Harry raised the axe, though the fairy seized it from his grasp and used it on him. Harry looked up at the fairy and refused to close his eyes for even a second throughout the agony that cascaded through him. The axe’s blade lodged into his stomach and Harry tried to think about his next steps, how he was definitely going to survive this, how he just needed a little more time.

And the fairy stepped on Harry’s stomach and pulled back the axe free. But not before taking a good look on his hunter’s chest. There were words written on there. The fairy grinned, wide and happy.

Let this monster know my words, Harry thought, but I won’t let him kill me. He disallowed the fairy to swing again, unsheathing his standard issue dagger and throwing it in the fairy’s face in one clean, learned swoop. The left eye was hit, to be perfectly precise.

‘’I can’t believe that worked.’’ Harry wheezed out a laugh as the fairy curled into itself in pain, too preoccupied with his health to care for the hunter’s condition. Harry used this window of opportunity to cast a healing spell on his wound. He barely managed to stand, but he surged to grab the discarded axe. The fairy was too busy bathing in the healing, enchanted water of the Fair Folk.

Harry inhaled. It hurt. He exhaled. It somehow hurt even more. He gripped the axe and promised that he would make his parents proud. He attacked.

The water of the creek muddied with sap-like substance. Harry leaned on the embedded axe. The last thing he heard was a very uncomfortable: ‘’They were fun when they died…This…’’A stagger, a hitch, a twitch, **‘’this isn’t fun anymore.’’**

Harry nearly threw up.

Alas, in the not so far distance he saw an enchanting creature with a pale blond head and mismatched eyes.

Harry whispered to the being, faintly: ‘’Hello?’’

The powerful fairy turned around and vibrantly greeted: ‘’Oh, hello to you, as well.’’

Then he turned the other way and said: ‘’I cannot talk like this. You annoy me very much.’’

And with a snap of his claws, Harry found himself in the company of an aged hunter with a shotgun, a very rugged sort of charm, and words that mirrored his exactly. All in all, he was only one day in the fairy hunting business, but he had nothing to complain about.

‘’Hey.’’

‘’Ugh, what is this child doing here…’’

‘’I’m not a kid, I just killed a fairy!’’

‘’With more luck than technique I imagine.’’

‘’Shut up, old man, I’m learning.’’

‘’Can you learn in a more entertaining way?’’ The Prince of Faerie whispered, eyes hungry and voice depraved.

‘’Name’s Riddle.’’

‘’Erm, Potter. Yeah. _Hey_.’’

‘’You said Hey already.’’ Riddle said, but he shook hands with his soulmate. All in all, he expected to fight the Prince on his own, under vastly different circumstances, but he could use the power of his soulmate, too.

The Prince went on to ask them another thing, but Riddle intercepted his majesty with a very important question. ‘’Why aren’t you rhyming?’’

‘’I’ve recently discovered Free Verse. Bathilda told me about it. She is my favourite poet. Do any of you know my Albus?’’ The Prince swooned.

Riddle and Potter looked at each other and decided to do one thing that humans knew how to do best: lie their way out of dangerous circumstances.

‘’He sends his love.’’

‘’Er, yeah, definitely. Says he misses you. Asked me to tell you to visit him.’’

The Prince practically swooned. ‘’Where did he say to meet?’’

Potter looked to Riddle.

Riddle leaned on Potter for physical support. Potter did a similar thing.

The Prince waited with a merry smile and clasped hands, dancing in place out of sheer anticipation.

‘’Err, outside of Aberforth’s pub.’’

Then, Potter added to Riddle’s answer. ‘’He said he’d meet you there at,’’ looking at his wristwatch, ‘’fifteen minute from now actually.’’

‘’Oh no!’’ The Prince bemoaned. ‘’No, I must get ready. My Albus awaits!’’

And just like that, Tom Riddle and Harry Potter managed to live another day. 

**_‘’Fucking fairies.’’_ **


End file.
